While Fox let us film the test run and ask tons of questions, they stressed that the new post is still in development and they couldn’t tell us everything we wanted to know. In fact, it doesn’t even have a name yet. So, what did we learn? Rear Suspension Only: The first thing to point out is that, unlike the Live Valve, this new system focuses solely on shock performance and does not incorporate the front suspension at all. This means riders will be able to pair the shock with any fork they want, including those from other brands. I would argue that it makes a lot of sense for enduro racers who basically never want their fork tight, but also from a consumer and sales perspective. Buying a new shock is a lot less daunting than having to buy and install a fork, shock and a bunch of cables that may or may not play well with whatever bike you have. Wireless Sensors: Speaking of cables, this is another dissimilarity between this system and the Live Valve. The two sensors that tell the shock’s brain what the wheels are doing, each bolted to the front and rear brake mounts, are wireless and powered by common CR2032 batteries, while the shock itself runs on a removable and rechargeable proprietary battery. Hand-held remote: More interesting than the batteries, however, is the handlebar-mounted remote that Jesse used to control the shock. This allowed him to manually cycle between shock modes without taking his hand off the grip, something that was never possible with the Live Valve and also a feature that might give some riders a headache. After filming this video, Jesse used the new shock at this weekend’s Whistler EWS (winning the Pro Stage), where it was spotted by a photographer and posted on the front page yesterday. Not a bad debut, especially when you consider that Jesse was racing exclusively with spring shocks before the tests we joined him for.
